


It's the Job

by MyOwnSuperintendent



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode: s09e04 4-D, Gen, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 15:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12867264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyOwnSuperintendent/pseuds/MyOwnSuperintendent
Summary: During "4-D," Reyes and Scully discuss being a woman in the FBI.





	It's the Job

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own The X-Files or anything related to it. Hope you enjoy!

She’d made her statement about Lukesh’s attack and was on her way out of the building when she heard a voice calling, “Monica.”  She jumped when she heard it, couldn’t help it, even though she realized in half a second that it was only Dana.  

“Yeah?” she said, turning around.  “What’s up?”  She was trying for insouciance, but she didn’t think it worked.

“I just wanted to check that you were all right,” Dana said.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Monica said.  “Not hurt.”  Dana nodded.  “Not the best day of my life, of course,” she added.  “But it’s the job, I guess.”  She wished she could really feel that, right now.

“It is,” Dana said.  “Doesn’t mean we have to like it, though.”

Maybe it was that _we_ that made her say it.  “It’s just…I feel gross, you know?  The way he was grabbing me and…”  She trailed off.  Some things—a lot of things—she could shake right off, but not this, not his knife against her neck and his whispered _bitch_ in her ear and his body much too close.

Dana nodded again, her expression rueful, knowing.  “Yeah, I’ve been there.”

“Who hasn’t?” she said.  “I guess.”  And yet it wasn’t something she talked about, not with the guys she worked alongside, sharing cases and risked lives and everything except this kind of threat.  She smiled at Dana then, maybe just because they’d said the words out loud.

Dana smiled back.  “I know it’s not easy to bring up,” she said, almost as if she’d read Monica’s mind.  “There’ve been times I haven’t wanted to say anything…well, you don’t want to look like you can’t hack it with the guys, right?”  Monica nodded at that, because from the age of three when she followed her cousins down the hill on their bikes, no hands no helmets, she’d never wanted to look like she couldn’t hack it with the guys.  “But I hate that it’s that way,” Dana went on.  “So I just wanted to check that you were okay.”

“I am,” Monica said.  “Or I will be, anyway.  After I go by the hospital, I’ll go home and get something to eat and go to sleep, and I’ll be better in the morning.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Dana said.  “Well, I’ll see you soon, Monica.”

“See you soon,” Monica said.  “And thanks.”  She reached out then and hugged Dana, quickly, because maybe it was the job, maybe it was part of what they had to face, but it felt so good to have someone else who knew how it felt.


End file.
